Harris team looks to course changes to reset her political prospects

[brooklynite]

Source: Washington Post

Vice President Harris’s team is engaged in a series of course changes that aides and supporters hope will boost her public image and reset her political prospects, after a first year in office that even some of her allies say has fallen short of expectations.

She has hired Jamal Simmons, a seasoned political operator and familiar face on cable news, to oversee her communications. She has returned to President Biden’s side for big events. She is mulling a heavier media schedule after months of looking warily at such engagements. She is looking to benefit from an extensive schedule of midterm campaigning that aides hope will revive Democrats’ faith in her political skills and popular appeal.

And after a year during which Biden often seemed to put Harris in charge of intractable, no-win issues, she is suddenly at the center of what, for the moment at least, is the administration’s top priority — voting rights. When Biden recently made two of the highest-profile speeches of his presidency on the subject, at the U.S. Capitol and in Atlanta, Harris spoke first and introduced him.

“Years from now, our children and our grandchildren, they will ask us about this moment,” she said in Atlanta. “And let us tell them we secured the freedom to vote, that we ensured free and fair elections, and we safeguarded our democracy for them and their children.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/14/harris-team-looks-for-reset/

[Rebl2]

1. Sometimes

I feel like she doesn’t come across as confident as she did when she was a senator. I think this is a good move.

[manicdem]

9. Harris for 2024!

Or 2028 if Biden wants a 2nd term. She can do it. Everyone depends on it.

[Polybius]

16. Not my first (or second or third) choice

I doubt she'd win the nomination, she did horrible in the last primaries. She's still better than any Republican though.

[oasis]

17. "Win, win" if Biden should nominate her for SCOTUS in his 2nd term. nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

22. He'll need a clear majority in the Senate, or his nominations will wait. And wait.

It would be nice if Breyer would retire while we have a Dem prez and a sorta Dem senate.

Some Dem senators might hold our for bipartisan approval of any replacment justices.

[cadoman]

12. being in a supportive role like VP is dramatically different than being at the forefront

There is some overlap in the skillset but a VP needs a vastly different mindset than a Senator or an AG. I share your perception that she doesn't seem as confident as she was in prior positions. She's also gone from representing a state where she was broadly liked, to representing a politically divided nation. The words that come to mind are uncomfortable and disappointed.

VP is not a role that you get a lot of glamour or praise. It's kind of like press secretary where you're stuck making excuses and playing defense for the downside of policy (and all large-scale policy has downsides).

Hopefully new staff will help her to find a mindset that allows her to enjoy the role, but I worry she'll always be unhappy as a VP. She projects as someone who would prefer to be the lead dog.

[Rebl2]

14. Agree with

what you are saying. Seems like VP job is to support whatever the President is doing and when you are asked to do something, do it with the knowledge you are helping the team/administration. I do hope Biden is listening to her if there is a difference of opinion. I know he said he and Obama didn’t always agree on things.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

2. I have full faith

In her political skills and popular appeal. She is a wonderful asset to President Biden. She has taken on what buttface left us with at the border, and they must have over looked her role in smoothing relations with France.

I am glad she is getting in front of the cameras to support our candidates though.

[ificandream]

7. Yeah, she's fine.

I really despise the empty media opinions that disparaged her and have taken hold. I read (well, actually listened to) her book "The Truths We Hold" before she was picked by Biden as his v.p. choice. Her story is invigorating. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it. I may be a little prejudiced because I live in the Bay Area (she's from Oakland) and she's been a familiar figure in these parts even before she became a Senator. She was the right person for the job. She's getting the same sort of anti-woman treatment Hillary did. It's all bullshit.

Another opinion on her book, from Five Books:

The Truths We Hold is Kamala Harris’s memoir, published in 2019. It’s really a manifesto, an account of the issues she cares about, interspersed with the story of her personal life. Her parents were both immigrants, her mother from southern India, her father from Jamaica. They met as students in Berkeley and were both involved in the civil rights movement. They split up when she was five, and Kamala was mainly brought up by her mother. The memoir chronicles her career as a ‘progressive’ public prosecutor, culminating in a stint as District Attorney for California, and finally her election as Senator. This is a deeply impressive story, told in a matter of fact way, and an excellent book to read if you want to know who Kamala Harris is, what she’s about and what she’s likely to set out to achieve when she’s in office.

The site also recommends the Young Reader's Version of the book.

It’s very similar in content and style to the adult version, but shorter. This might be the best book to read if you want to read Kamala Harris’s own version of the story of her life in a couple of hours.

[Roy Rolling]

3. VP job

There are few specifics on the job description, but mounting a political campaign using the office as a stepping stone can be counterproductive.

She is best countering bulls*it propagandists live, give her a platform to be real.

Being real, that’s what she does best.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

4. Short of expectations, says the paid opinionators...when wasn't a black woman judged

to fall short of expectations by a male, white dominated media?

More white privileged ink. Meaningless.

VP Harris, the choice of Biden, is an American hero.

[onetexan]

18. +1 -K&R

[hamsterjill]

5. I hope she changes things.

I fear she is being “Hillaried”, and it’s time for her to take necessary steps to make sure that is not allowed to happen.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

6. How much of this is a woman having to be twice as good as a man... and a black woman having to be

four times as good. "Fallen short of expectations" Maybe look at the expectations too, along with the person who has 'fallen short."

[ificandream]

10. I think you mean ....

... "along with the person who says she's fallen short." That is utter bullshit.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

13. WHAT is utter bullshit? Have no idea what you are referring to by "that". nt

[ificandream]

21. Relax ... and yes, I do...

To say she has "fallen short" is garbage. As others have pointed out, it seems as though different standards are being applied to her, possibly because she's a woman.

[Joinfortmill]

8. Recently, she's seemed more relaxed, more herself- which is a good thing.

To me, she became rather "stiff" after becoming VP. Could have been a bit overwhelming, even for her.

[robbedvoter]

15. Not smiling enough for ya?

[Alexander Of Assyria]

19. It is the nature of social media to draw firm conclusions on one photograph.

Cant be helped, it’s in some folks nature to leap to judgment more agile than a leopard.

I would give these folks a pass, at some point they realize they not leopards.

[LudwigPastorius]

11. All of these "Vice Presidency In Crisis!" articles...

seem like a bunch of ginned-up crap by a news media that is bored shitless at how competent and scandal free the Biden/Harris administration has been.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

20. Well put, sir. In a very nicely framed nutshell, that is the foundation...never ending concern trolls.

The mass media is so bored with the incredible competency of this administration, poor souls have little to put in the stir up some shit for the corporate media bosses pot…do what the bosses want.